Jennifer S. Altman/For The Washington Post via Getty Images
- Donald Trump was once paid in gold bars for the lease of a parking garage, per a new book.
- New York Times reporter Maggie Haberman wrote that the gold bars were sent to Trump Tower.
- Trump didn't know how to handle the bars and it is unclear what happened to them, per Haberman.
During his days as a businessman in New York, former President Donald Trump was once paid with a pile of gold bars in lieu of cash.
This anecdote was shared in a new book by New York Times journalist Maggie Haberman titled "Confidence Man: The Making of Donald Trump and the Breaking of America." According to an excerpt provided exclusively to CNN, this odd form of payment was given to Trump to cover the price of leasing a garage at the General Motors building in New York, which Trump bought in 1998.
Per CNN, Haberman wrote that Trump didn't know how to handle the dozens of gold bars sent to him. They were eventually wheeled up to his apartment at Trump Tower, though it's unclear what happened with the gold bars afterward.
Haberman also recalled in the excerpt seen by CNN that Trump was asked about the gold bars and responded by calling it a "fantasy question."
A representative at Trump's post-presidential press office did not immediately respond to Insider's request for comment.
The account from Haberman adds to the list of odd revelations about Trump's past business dealings that have emerged in recent months.
This month, for example, an excerpt from a book by New York Times reporter David Enrich — titled "Servants of the Damned: Giant Law Firms, Donald Trump and the Corruption of Justice" — recounted how Trump once tried to pay an attorney $ 2 million in legal fees with the deed to a stallion.
According to Enrich, Trump — who was then a real-estate businessman — had failed to pay his bills. When confronted by his irate lawyer, Trump t pulled out a "deed to a horse" and told the lawyer that it was "more valuable" than the fees he owed.
Meanwhile, Trump and his three adult children are facing a $ 250 million civil lawsuit filed by New York Attorney General Leticia James. The suit seeks to bar the Trump family from conducting business in New York and accuses the former president of inflating his net worth by billions.
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